On February 7, 2007, I Was One of Only Two City Council Members Nationwide on the Panel

AB 1234 Report of Attendance of Tom Butt at the 2007 National Summit on Building Healthy Places and the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference

February 11, 2007

2007 National Summit on Building Healthy Places

On February 7, 2007, I was one of only two city council members nationwide on the panel of the 2007 National Summit on Building Healthy Places, sponsored by theAmerican Planning Association, National Association of County and City Health Officials, Local Government Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, American Public Health Association, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kaiser Permanente, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Lewis Operating Corporation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The purpose was to create a joint national public health and planning action agenda that will create health promoting policies and practices at the local and regional level. The evidence continues to grow that development and land use planning decisions have a significant effect on public health, particularly on risk of asthma, diabetes and childhood obesity.

Some of the 48 Summit participants, who mostly represented public health, environmental and planning officials at the highest levels, included Valerie Rogers, MPH, Program Manager, National Association of County and City Health Officials, Geoffrey Anderson, Director, Development & Community Environment Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Howard Frumpkin, MD, Director, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mark Horton, MD, California State Public Health Officer and Lisa Feldstein, JD, Senior Policy Director, Public Health Institute.

Why is this important for Richmond? Residents of Richmond suffer from abnormally high incidence of all three lifestyle-related and location-related diseases -- asthma, diabetes and childhood obesity. Decisions made in years past by the City Council, Planning Commission and Design Review Board have literally made us sick, and future decisions have the power o make us well.

Through a grant from the California Endowment, a Health Element has been added to the ongoing Richmond General Plan Update, and we will have an opportunity to incorporate planning regulations into our new General Plan that will result in a healthier community.

New Partners for Smart Growth Conference

The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference has grown significantly since it began several years ago — increasing in scope, attendance, and prestige — and is now considered to be the "premier" smart growth conference held each year. The strength of this conference comes from the variety of participants and speakers who cross disciplines to share experiences and insights, and valuable tools and strategies to encourage smart growth implementation and "get it done."

Until this year, the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference had been a partnership of the Local Government Commission (LGC) and PennStateUniversity. This year, the LGC had an opportunity to go it alone, and the result was the largest conference ever with over 1,500 attendees.

All the members of the Richmond City Council are members of the Local Government Commission, and I serve as vice-chair of the board of directors.

The 2007 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference began on February 8 with a record-breaking attendance of more than 1,500 people, mostly involved in some aspect of local government, planning, transportation and public health. Jim Rogers and I attended from the Richmond City Council are. Also from Richmond or nearby were Barbara Becnel, Director of North Richmond Neighborhood House, Nancy Bair, Program Manager, Contra Costa County Health Department, Bruce Brubaker, local architect with the Berkeley firm of Design, Community & Environment, Janet Abelson, Vice-mayor of El Cerrito, Melanie Mintz, project Manager, El Cerrito Public Works department and John Troughton of Cushman & Wakefield.

The conference was intensive, going on twelve hours a day for three days. The sessions I attended are as follows:

Livable Communities, Southern California Style: Circumstantial Urbanism in Los Angeles

John Kamp, Urban Planner, Planning Department, City of Los Angeles, described how low density zoning and high parking ratios had turned Lincoln Boulevard into an unattractive and underutilized corridor for most of its length. The boulevard had been further down-zoned in the 1990s because of pressure from adjacent residents. Mott Smith, Principal, Civic Enterprise, described how the LA Garment District had evolved into a lively, mixed use, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood with almost no municipal planning intervention. This started with the garment makers selling seconds along an alley that drew huge crowds. Restaurants and other retail services followed. Due to zoning requirements for parking, and unusual building type evolved with three and four story buildings with parking on the roof. The on-site parking wastes a lot of space. A better solution that could have been facilitated by planning intervention would have been decoupling the parking requirement from individual parcels. “Park once and walk,” as in old-town Pasadena would have been a better example. Smith believes that if government builds good infrastructure for livable communities, development will take care of the rest.

Speakers included Lewis MacAdams, Friends of the LA River, Mott Smith, Principal, CIVIC ENTERPRISE, John Kamp, Planning Department, City of Los Angeles, CA, and Robert Gottlieb, Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, OccidentalCollege

Gentrification in the Name of Smart Growth: Lessons and Strategies for Maintaining Diversity

Smart Growth strives to reduce the need for the automobile and encourage neighborhoods that encompass opportunities for live, work, and play. In Los Angeles, as commutes grow longer, restrictions impede higher densities, and land costs in desirable and moderate neighborhoods skyrocket, developers have increasingly been looking to historically low-income neighborhoods as places to provide workforce housing affordable to the middle class. Although not at the high end of the market, these new homes are more expensive than the existing stock and, thus, some level of gentrification ensues. In doing so, low income residents of those neighborhoods are being pushed further out in to the fringe to make way for housing that is affordable to the workforce, but not necessarily for low-income households. As a result, with little available income to spend on transportation and housing, the low-income households find themselves with even fewer choices than before as they are pushed further out and/or to areas underserved by transit. The session included a panel discussion representing various viewpoints on the pitfalls of and solutions for displacement as a result of enacting Smart Growth principles.

Speakers included Victor Ruben, Director of Research, PolicyLink, Mary Wright, Program Manager, LA Planning Department and Michael Woo, Planning Commissioner, City of Los Angeles. All agreed with the importance of retaining and creating housing for low income residents as a component of Smart Growth to avoid pushing these people out to areas underserved by affordable public transit. PolicyLink offers the Equitable Development Toolkit as a resource for maintaining economic diversity of residents.

It’s Easy Being Green – and Healthier Too

Smart growth looks at where we build and attempts to curb the sprawl that's become prevalent across the U.S. But to really grow smartly we need to look at not just where we grow, but how we grow. The built environment plays a major impact on our environment — the building sector consumers 40 percent of all the world's energy and material resources. Buildings in the U.S. are responsible for more CO2 emissions than any other country in the world except China. Building "green" maximizes building performance while minimizing environmental impacts. Moreover, the benefits of green building accrue across the community. Green design increases the performance of the buildings in your neighborhood -- schools, healthcare facilities, homes, etc., to ensure Smart Growth holistically across your community. High performance buildings not only curtail energy usage and save precious resources, but also improve our health and productivity. Children living and studying in green buildings get sick less and perform better in school. Green hospitals increase recovery periods. Green retail sells more products.

Speakers included Noreen Beatley, Director, State and Local Policy, Enterprise Community Partners, Kollin Min, Senior Program Director, Enterprise Community Partners, Reid Ewing, Ph.D., Research Professor, NationalCenter for Smart Growth, University of Maryland and Todd Jersey, Owner, Todd Jersey Architects (also architects of The Plunge rehabilitation).

Some of the resources described include the Portland Office of Sustainable Development, California Sustainable Building Task Force, U.S. Green Building Council, and Health Care Without Harm.

Complete streets: Innovations for Planning and Policies

Officials and planners are discovering street design as an effective route towards healthier, sustainable communities. By asking if planned and existing streets are complete for all users they are getting at the root of much more evasive issues such as economic growth, optimizing mixed-use and accessibility for all residents and visitors. Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit users of all ages and abilities enjoy traveling along and across complete streets. Complete streets policies require that all of these users are accommodated in all transportation projects. Speakers included David Goldberg, Communications Director, Smart Growth America, Barbara McCann, Principal, McCann Consulting, Sue Knaup, Executive Director, Thunderhead Alliance, Tracy Newsome, Transportation Planner, Charlotte Department of Transportation andDave Snyder, Director of Program Development, Thunderhead Allian.

Some good resources include Charlotte’s Urban Street Design Guidelines and the Massachusetts Street Design Handbook.

Smart Growth: Growing Our Economy and Accelerating the Pace of Environmental Protection

For the last 10 years the EPA has played a leadership role on smart growth at the national level. But, ultimately EPA is a catalyst and resource; change comes about as a result of new directions in the states, local governments, and the business and non-profit sectors. Administrator Johnson will discuss how EPA is partnering with these sectors to support their efforts, the challenges and opportunities smart growth presents for the environmental community, and what it will take to reach the next level of environmental protection. The keynote speaker was Steve Johnson, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protections Agency.

Ensuring Equitable and Healthy Communities

Smart Growth is about quality of life and the ability for all people to have access to decent livable communities. For some, this is inherent in their daily lives. For many others, especially those in the middle and lower classes, choices and options for safe and healthy living are few. This discussion focused on strategies smart growth advocates employ to ensure greater access to opportunity, and provide safe, economically attainable, livable neighborhoods. In doing so, these communities are models of healthy lifestyles and practice. The speaker was Dr. Plaugh of The California Endowment, the organization that funded the Health Element of Richmond’s General Plan.

The Challenges of Joint-Use School-Based Community Planning

As many communities across the country struggle with the social and environmental consequences of suburban sprawl and unmanaged urban growth, a new trend in school design that addresses a range of community problems is emerging. Joint-use schools that create partnerships with other community resources including libraries, parks, health clinics, youth programs, and even farmer’s markets. These partnerships can reverse the trend of sprawl, attract more people to live and raise families closer to the core of the city, and make efficient use of scarce materials and land. This session explored some of the major challenges and opportunities facing joint-use school-based development and will look at several success stories and the lessons learned from these experiences.

Speakers included David Abel, Managing Director, New Schools Better Neighborhoods, John R. Dale, AIA, LEED AP, Associate Principal, K-12 Schools Studio, Harry Ellis Devereaux, Randall Lewis, Executive Vice President, Director of Marketing, Lewis Operating Corp and Gail Goldberg, Planning Director, City of Los Angeles, CA.

Resources include Great Schools by Design of the American Architectural Foundation, National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities and Schools for Successful Communities.

Partnerships for Building Crime-Resistant Communities

Public safety is a critical factor in smart growth planning, given that crime and fear have such a pronounced impact on property values, the ability of children to walk to school, the success of businesses, prospects for new investment and the overall health of residents. Likewise, planners and community developers can greatly influence crime patterns as they shape the physical environment and the landscape of economic and social opportunities in a given place. This session explored how law enforcement and planners/developers can integrate their strategies to transform troubled neighborhoods and prevent crime in the long run. Leaders in the Community Safety Initiative (CSI), a national program of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, will discuss how and why such police-developer alliances have worked; describe ways to overcome common barriers to collaboration, such as distrust, resource limitations and institutional differences; and share examples of police-developer collaboration around land use and infrastructure decision-making, architectural design, and community programming that have helped to create safe and healthy neighborhoods across the country.

Speakers were Julia Ryan, Program Director, Community Safety Initiative, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Theresa Carr, Executive Director, American Indian Neighborhood Development Corporation and Sharon Lubinski, Deputy Chief, Minneapolis Police Department.

Resources include Safe Streets Sound Communities and CPTED. One idea that Richmond might benefit from is using non-sworn, full-time “crime prevention specialists” in each of the geographic community policing beats at substations.

Smart AND Green: LEED for Neighborhood Development and MunicipalGreenBuilding Programs

Local governments across the country are looking to sustainable development practices to preserve the quality of life and promote greater environmental stewardship. This session highlights two tools that can assist local governments in guiding development in a more sustainable direction.
Jennifer Henry of USGBC and Jessica Millman of the Coalition for Smarter Growth presented an overview of LEED for Neighborhood Development, a new rating system designed by the U.S. Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The rating system, which is currently being piloted with a limited number of projects, has been developed to recognize and encourage smart growth, more walkable and/or transit-oriented neighborhood design, and green building by certifying development projects that meet specific criteria in these areas. LEED for Neighborhood Development's potential value to developers, planners, smart growth advocates, and municipalities will also be discussed.
Walker Wells of Global Green outlined a new step-by-step guide for developing municipal green building programs. Speakers included Jennifer Henry, Program Manager for LEED for Neighborhood Developments, U.S. Green Building Council, Walker Wells, AICP, Program Director, R.E.S.C.U.E., Global Green, Don Norquist, President, Congress for the New Urbanism, Kay Benfield, Natural Resources Defense Council and Jessica Millman, Maryland Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth.

Reshaping America's Housing: Preparing for the NextBuilding Boom

Whether you rode the recent housing wave or not, the impacts of housing supply and affordability has left an indelible mark on planning and society. While scores of homeowners are reaping the benefits of new found wealth, barriers to supplying additional housing at all price points will drastically impact the ability for a new generation of households to afford the American Dream. This plenary discussed the confluence of shifts in national demographics over the next 30 years with the lack of a broad-based housing plan that will address the needs of Americans. Speakers included the perspectives of a demographer, a retailer, two homebuilders and a local official. Since it has been said that half of what is needed to house the country by 2030 has not been built yet, the time is now to chart a course for housing that meets the demands of the public and builds within the context of livable and sustainable communities.

Speakers included Benson (Buzz) Roberts, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Dr. Arthur C. “Chris” Nelson, Director, Alexandria Campus, Virginia Tech’s School of Urban Affairs and Planning, Randall Lewis, Executive Vice President, Director of Marketing, Lewis Operating Corp. , Councilmember Robert Weiner, Esq., New Castle County, DE; NACo Chair, Land Use & Growth Management Subcommittee and Con Howe, Director, Center for Balanced Development in the West, The Urban Land Institute